1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is generally related to a disk apparatus for recording information on and/or reproducing information from a disk such as a CD and a DVD and, more particularly, to a disk loading mechanism of the disk apparatus that performs loading and unloading of a disk.
2. Related Art
In recent years, disk type data storage devices such as optical disk drive have been widely used. In order to upgrade the performance of the disk type data storage device, manufacturers have been continuously upgrading the rotation speed of the spindle motor of the device to increase the speed of reading and writing data. Meanwhile, the recording densities of disks have been undergoing continued increase for obtaining a larger capability to contain data. Therefore, it has been required that the disk type data storage devices should have a high stability so as to perform the clear reading and writing data from or onto disks.
A loading mechanism is one of the most important parts of a disk type data storage device, which is used to perform loading a disk into and unloading of a disk out of the disk type data storage device. The operational stability of the loading mechanism is one matter impacting the stability of the disk type data storage device.
A conventional loading mechanism includes a frame, a set of gears, a transmission unit and a pivoting base. Two pole portions are formed on the frame, and the transmission unit includes two longitudinal grooves slidably receiving the pole portions of the frame. The transmission unit further includes a rack for engaging with the set of gears and a Z-shaped groove for receiving a pin of the pivoting base therein. In operation, the set of gears engages with the rack of the transmission unit, pushing the transmission unit to move along the longitudinal direction thereof. The moving transmission unit drives the pivoting base sliding upward or downward.
However, in the above-mentioned loading mechanism, the stability of the transmission unit is poor when moving along the longitudinal direction to push the pivoting base to slide upward or downward. This poor stability does not satisfy the operating requirements for the high-speed and high-density disk apparatus.
Therefore, a heretofore unaddressed need exists in the industry to address aforementioned deficiencies and inadequacies associated with the operational stability of the loading mechanism.